Wednesday 30 / April / 2025
MUSCAT: Al-Manar Racing by Team WRT’s Al-Faisal Al-Zubair returns to racing action in the 2025 GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS this weekend to tackle the opening round of the Sprint Series at the nostalgic Brands Hatch circuit in southern England.
Al-Zubair teams up with Jens Klingmann in the Al-Manar Racing by Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO and faces a 30-car grid with 10 manufacturers represented. The entry is the largest Sprint Cup field to enter a race at the Kent circuit since 2017.
The entry for the pair of one-hour races on Sunday is made up of Pro, Gold and Silver Cup runners with the Bronze Cup entrants starting their campaign later this month at Zandvoort.
Al-Zubair said: “I am really looking forward to the weekend. I think there is a lot to be excited about. This will be my first time ever in the GT World Challenge Sprint Series. That will be a challenge in itself. I hear the pit stops are as fast as possible, so that can win or lose you the race.
“There are a lot of factors in the Sprint series that need to be taken into account. The last time for me at Brands Hatch was in 2016, so nine years ago, a long time. I am looking forward to being back and my first time in a GT car there. Alongside Jens Klingmann, I hope we can come back with a podium and raise the Omani flag once again. That will be our target for this race weekend. The competition is very tough, but we are looking forward to it.”
Competition for Al-Manar Racing by Team WRT in the Gold Cup category comes from last year’s Sprint Cup-winning Saintleoc Racing Audi duo of Paul Evrard and Gilles Magnus, the Tresor Attempto Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3, Emil Frey Racing’s Ferrari 296 GT3 and the CSA Racing and Garage 59 McLaren 720S GT3s.
Free practice gets the on-track action underway at 09.25hrs on Saturday morning (May 3rd) and this precedes an hour of pre-qualifying and the short qualifying session, starting at 16.35hrs.
Race one takes centre stage on the British circuit at 11.00hrs on Sunday (May 4th) with race two firing into life at 15.45hrs.
The GTWC machines will share the weekend’s timetable with McLaren Trophy, Equipe Libre and Mini 7s/Miglia entrants.
